Greetings from Emmett D. Carson, Ph. D.,
CEO and president, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

A NEW CHAPTER

Welcome to the start of a new chapter as we officially launch the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Expectations are understandably high for this new institution, sired by two champion thoroughbreds, the Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley.

Our goals are ambitious. We are committed to improving the quality of life for all in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and recognize that to do so will require us to provide world-class donor services, strong and consistent investment performance and, most important, innovative solutions to the most challenging problems.

We have made enormous progress in getting to this day. The boards of the two parent foundations engaged in a comprehensive review process driven by the question of what would be in the best long-term interest of our entire community. We have begun to meld together as a single staff, started the arduous process of creating new systems and procedures and identified a new headquarters location. More changes are underway as our board begins to assess the strategies and options for creating a regional dialogue and implementing specific strategies that we hope will improve our community.

As I have made my first of what will be many visits to Gilroy, Daly City, Half Moon Bay and communities in between, I have been amazed by the vibrancy and innovation taking place throughout our community. People with ideas and energy are constantly finding new ways to collaborate with each other to help make our lives easier, faster and more fulfilling. There appears to be a widespread understanding that the Valley’s economic success depends in large part on the fortunes of the tech industry regardless of whether one works in that industry.

Unfortunately, this recognition of interconnectedness appears to be absent when talking about the regional challenges of public education, affordable housing, transportation and environmental protection. These and other issues are unlikely to be effectively addressed without understanding the regional context in which local solutions will be implemented.

The hope and aspiration of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is to think regionally and act locally. We want the community foundation to be a place where regional strategies can be developed and local solutions tested and, where successful, replicated. We aspire to be a place where like-minded donors can share ideas, find common cause and represent a new vanguard in bringing innovative solutions to myriad challenges facing our communities.

To achieve these aspirations, the community foundation must engage as many people as we can throughout the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to help us identify the most important regional issues. The community foundation must support, encourage, and partner with those nonprofit organizations and institutions that are advancing the best ideas to address those regional themes in the context of their local communities. Over time, the community foundation will strive to take the most successful local solutions and share them across the region and advocate for their systematic adoption so that everyone can benefit.

By taking this approach, our hope is to encourage a new level of civic engagement in which individuals will bring their time, talent and treasure to solving the most challenging problems in our community. If we are able to do this, there is no doubt that we, our children and our grandchildren will be the beneficiaries for decades to come. We are excited by the opportunities that lie before us and invite you to take the journey with us.